This one is set in the time of the Cholas, a tale of the coming to power of Rajaraja Chola- born Arulmozhivarman. The story however, actually focusses on Vandiyathevan, a prince whose family has lost their lands, who falls in love with Arulmozhivarman's elder sister, Kundavai.
The villain of the piece is Nandini (haha!)- whether she is the daughter or lover of the Pandya king Veerapandyan, who was killed by the crown prince,Adityakarikalan is not clear- but Adityakarikalan loved her- but because she was believed to be only a servant's daughter, could not move their relationship forward. When he next sees her she is protecting Veerapandyan much to his fury, and before her eyes, he kills him.
In the meantime, the king is sick, the younger son in Sri Lanka, his sister plotting for him to win the Sri Lankan throne and marry her friend. There's a fisherman's daughter Poonkuzhali (who is really my favorite character)- who goes from hero worship to true love. There is the son of the old king who seeks his throne (not entirely without right), and his mother, who has secrets of her own. And still, there are others- the Pazhuvettarayars, who have been chief ministers to the kings for ages, the Prime Minister and his spies- the intrigues at the court are never ending.
It was literally one of those unputdownable things. The story moves rapidly as new people, situations and plots are revealed. I wish I could have read it in Tamil! Next on my agenda is a book of short stories by Kalki.
6 comments:
Is there a specific translation (translated by X or Y) that is good?
the posting brought back memories of my visit to Gangai Konda Cholapuram temple last year...the temple which was built by Rajendra cholan (Raja Raja Cholan's son) was apparently destroyed by a pandya king (not sure who)... :) Its really cool how you give an abridged version of the story..it makes life easier for people like me..;-)...oh and BTW...I am reading Far From the Madding Crowd...JUST because you challenged me..:-p..hehe..oh! also, write abt ur India trip :)
OOh... I do have to write about the India trip... never been to that temple... will have to check it out.
I read the translated version myself... there's a really good translation by CV Karthik Narayan
Hahaa..for a moment i thought you wrote Karthik Nagarajan :-p..
HI, just stumbled on to your blog while searching for specific images of Ponniyin Selvan (Arulmozhi Vermar) to make a funny meme :D
Glad to hear you are enjoying the book. It also seems there were some plays in Chicago on this. Very cool!
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